Crosman 362 Muzzle Energy – 15 Ft/Lbs For A $99 Gun!
Crosman 362 Muzzle Energy can approach 15 Ft/Lbs. Yes, that’s 15 Ft/Lbs for an air rifle selling for a Street Price of just $99.99, with a weight of only 4 Lbs 8 Oz and no recoil. Plus, it’s pretty quiet, too…
That has to be some kind of record value proposition for preppers and backyard hunters!
Certainly the HAM Team cannot remember any $100 air rifle producing such a combination of benefits. So the 362 really could be something!
Announced just last week, a 362 arrived in the HAM offices yesterday. Like everyone else, we were interested to see how much power and speed is produced for different numbers of pumps.
So – probably like most 362 customers – we opened a couple of tins of Crosman pellets and started pumping. For this quick test we chose to use 14.3 Grain Premier HollowPoint pellets. For a comparison, we also used 19.0 Grain Premier Domed Ultra Heavy pellets. Here’s what we found…
Crosman 362 Muzzle Velocity
Following the manufacturer’s instructions, we fired the 362 at between 2 and 8 pumps per shot. Actually, we fired 5 shots with each pellet at each number of pumps and then averaged the resulting Muzzle Velocities.
First, the 14.3 Grain pellets. The maximum Muzzle Velocity was 658 FPS with 8 pumps. Could it be higher with more pumps? Probably, but likely not that much. And anyhow, the HAM Team follows the rules! Crosman specifies 8 pumps maximum, so that’s what we gave it.
As expected, the Muzzle Velocities were lower with the heavier, 19.0 Grain pellets.
No magic “1,000 FPS” numbers here. But remember, the 362 is available in .22 caliber only.
Crosman 362 Muzzle Energy
Yes, Muzzle Velocity is fine. But what really counts if you’re hunting is Muzzle Energy – knockdown power. Here the 362 really delivers.
First we have the 362 Muzzle Energy chart using 14.3 Grain Premier Hollow Points. Close to 14 Ft/Lbs with 8 pumps. Very good indeed!
But when we used the 19.0 Grain Heavies, we see Muzzle Energy approaching 15 Ft/Lbs with 8 pumps. (The average across 5 shots was 14.6 Ft/Lbs using unsorted pellets). As we said, that’s pretty remarkable for a $100 airgun!
Crosman 362 Muzzle Energy Comparison
If we take the Muzzle Energies from these two tests and plot them on the same graph, you can immediately see the difference between the heavier and lighter pellets.
So, if maximum power is your goal from the Crosman 362, heavier pellets can give an appreciable advantage.
Sure, this is not a complete HAM test review. Nor did we shoot the gun for accuracy during this test. But you have to be impressed with that power/weight/cost equation. The Crosman 362 looks like it could be the perfect prepper’s hunting gun!
